The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-03-16
THE CATAC0MBS.
A VISIT TO THE VAST CEMETlER-
les BENEATH PARIS.
The Bones of Millions Of Human. Be-
, ings Lying Exposed in This
Veritable City Of
the Dead.

SSAASooAS NAty
the Dead.
There is one among the many interest
ing sights of Paris which the tourist rare
ly secs, and yet it is the most curious of
them all. A very wide area of the south
side of the city is undermined, as
most people know, by the excavations car
ried on there for more than 200 years.
From these quarries were obtainei the
peculiar white stone of which so many
Partisan houses are built, and during. the
period that they continued to be worked
the output is estimated to have reached o
total of eleven million of cubic metres.
Operations had at last to be closed Hhen
it became evident, from many warnings,
that the surface of the undermined dis
tricts, extended to more than three mill
ions of square yards---fully tenth Of the
total supcricies of the modern city
threatened to give way, and at the same
time the whole of the excavated section
was placed under scientific supervision.
The Parisians, in the early days of
their city, buried their dead, in accord
ance with the custom of the Romans,
beyond the walls, and by the sides Of the
high roads. Later ON interments took
place in churches, or in ground adjoin-
ing; but the spreading city soon inc:osed
these within its limits, so that waen a
decree forbidding burial within cities or
towns, was issued in ITO, Paris was per-
haps better supplied with intra-elural
cemeteries than any city in the world.
The dead were not left long after this in
possession of their abodes, for the land
they occupied was needed to support
homes for the living, and grew in value
every year.
When it was deemed advisable for the
general welfare to remove these large and
numerous cemeteries from the centre OF
thickly populated districts the qrarries
were proposed as fitting place for the
disposal of the exhumed remains. The
most suitable and least moist part Of these
gigantic caverns having been selected and
walled off, the bones of countless dead,
relics of heaven only knows how many
generations, were removed from the
graves in which they had long rested
calmly and were transported always at
night, the way lighted by torchas-to
their new abode.
Professions of priests in full canonicals
escorted them, and the funeral service
was chanted as the remains were lowered
through a shaft from hcarses that had
been specially constructed for the occa-
pion. It was calculated that the relics of
at least three millions of human Ecings
were thus transferred. The decree Of the
Senate converting the quarrics into vast
ossuary was issued in 1884, but two years
elapsed before the removals were COM
menced. No effort was made to dispose
the relics in any regular order. TIE con-
tents of the different graveyards were
kept apart and were marked accordingly,
but beyond this all the bones were hud-
died together in indistinguishable con-
fusion.
1t was not until 1910, when the guard
ianship of the excavations of Southern
Paris was intrusted to NJ. de Thury, that
any attempt was made at classifying, if
such an expression may be used, the
heterogeneous masses of human remains
thus heaped together Huge pillars were
built for the purpose of support, AMI sew
eral winding stairs leading to the surface
above were hewn out of the solid stone;
the walls were repaired and spacious pas
sages opened communicating with the diff
ferent galleries of the quarrics. The bones
were carefully separated according to the
various cemeteries, and then the singular
idea seems to have occurred to II. de
Thury of forming here below city of the
dead, for he constructed a labyrinth OF
streets in these excavations which corre-,
spond exactly in length and direction
with the streets of the living overhead.
Once or twice a month the city engine
ers inspect the quarrics, examining more
particularly the condition of the enormous
stone pillars. On such occasions q
limited number of persons are allowed to
visit the catacombs in the wake of those
officials, and permission is obtained by
writing to the Prefet de Ia Seine, at the
Hotel de Vile, where the letter often lies
for six months before ticket is sent in
reply to it, but when it does arrive it is
available for party of five.
There are several entrances or Shafts to
these subterranean galleries. The ticket
of admission warns you to come provided
with candles, and on your arrival at the
gate you find several itinerant chambers,
who are driving roaring trade in the
cheap composites, which are the reverse
of dropless, as you discover to your cost
later on. The visitors descend in patches
of ten or twelve, and must 60 one by one,
slowly enough.
You light your candle and descend
ninety winding steps of solid stone and find
yourself OH the threshold of this veritable
city of the dead. Arrived Oh level
ground, you walk little way through
narrow passages cut in soft, white stone,
the arched roofs of which are little higher
than yourself, and on which is marked
the name of the street above, with which
its direction corresponds. Other passages,
across which chains are drawn, interscct
or branch off from these, and stretch
away into the depths of utter darkness
darkness visible. A few steps further and
you are at the gate of the ossuary. 1t is
perfectly plain, but massive, and painted
black. Strange and impressive in the ex-
tremc is the gallery to which it leads. 1t
is neither broad nor lofty. Probably
twenty persons could walk abreast in it
and the ceiling is not higher than that OF
an ordinay room. 1t is in complete dark
ness, except that at the further end, which
is curved, thus adding to its apparent ex-
tent, the flickering lights carried by the
batch of visitors who preceded you serve
to reveal a faint but sufficiently distinct